Cardinal Hollow Winery owner Christopher Boyd is a spirited sort of guy when he gets to talking about the 31 varieties of wine he makes at his North Wales headquarters — including his unique, award-winning, critically praised jalapeno wine. But Boyd is especially excited about a new development that just may get his bottles into the hands of more wine aficionados than ever before.

Currently, there are about 75 wineries in the state designated PA Preferred — a branding that’s earned after an extensive application process — and Cardinal Hollow is one of them.

“This is a really great opportunity for local wineries like ourselves to get our stuff on shelves,” said Boyd. “Right now, if I want to get my wines into stores, they have an open enrollment once a year, in March. I have to send in wines to Harrisburg for them to have tastings and decide if they want to carry them. It’s a complicated process, but this new thing is going to make that a lot easier, so I’m going all in.”

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PLCB spokesperson Stacy Kriedeman said that the partnership marks “an effort to work with and support local wineries and open their brand to a wider audience, and to capitalize on the whole buy-local trend that’s happening with wine, food, and all kinds of products.”

Kriedeman noted that while the PLCB has heard some of the past criticism that the agency has chosen to select and showcase wines from other states, such as California or New York, in state stores instead of Pennsylvania wines, she insisted that “we’ve always tried to be supportive of Pennsylvania wines, and there are almost 100 different Pennsylvania wines already in PA Wine and Spirits stores.”

Though all of the details of the program still need to be ironed out, Kriedeman said, the way it will work is that PA Preferred wineries will be able to select up to 10 of their wines (as opposed to the PLCB making those choices) to sell at up to 10 PA Wine and Spirits stores located in relative proximity to the winery. Wineries will be permitted to directly deliver between one and two cases a month to each store, and must sell a minimum of one case a month to be allowed to remain in the program. After the first six months, the PLCB will review sales performance to determine if the wines stay or go.

“It’s a win for consumers in that they may not ever get to try some of these wines if they can’t get to the winery, and it’s a win for the wineries in that they can get more exposure and sales, and it may also encourage visits to their winery,” said Kriedeman, who added that the PLCB is still considering signage, shelving, events and other ways in which they can spotlight and promote PA Preferred wines in stores.

“We want to do what we can to help them be successful,” she said.

“I hope they’ll have better shelving units and things like that, but I think it’s going to work out really well for us,” said Boyd. Among the Cardinal Hollow wines he intends to sell in PA Wine and Spirits stores are his jalapeno wine, his whiskey mead wine (which is honey wine fermented in Kentucky whiskey barrels for 14 months “so it soaks in all that great caramelization,” Boyd said),

his Black Forest chocolate-cherry wine, his gewurztraminer (a smooth German white wine), and his organic strawberry wine. He’s also considering a merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, and perhaps his pineapple wine, too.

One of the challenges of the program, Kriedeman admitted, is the pricing. Under the PLCB, all wine and spirits sold are subject to a 30 percent markup and an 18 percent liquor tax, “so wineries have to account for that because they’re not allowed to sell those wines for less at the winery,” she explained. “For some wineries, that can be a dealbreaker.”

But Boyd believes it’s worth it. “Just getting my wines out there for people to try, and to spread the word, is huge, so I’m really excited about it,” he said.